Jack Kulp made the call to sign up for military service after graduating from high school and securing a job in his field.

He landed in the U.S. Army, and served with its First Infantry Division, known as “The Big Red One.”

“I’m damn proud that I served,” Kulp, of Tamaqua, said. “I served my country. I did my full, 3-year mission.”

While the bulk of Kulp’s career following his discharge was in civil engineering, many know him for his music, whether it’s his singing or harmonica playing— or spinning tunes on his “Jack’s Tracks” show on Magic 105.5.

Kulp, who reached the rank of specialist fourth class, even took a harmonica with him to entertain fellow soldiers.

Joining the Army wasn’t his original plan, however.

Kulp graduated from Williamsport High School in 1967, where he studied architectural drafting.

At the time, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was constructing interstates 80 and 81, and as part of his high school major, he split his time between academic courses and employment with PennDOT.

“I would work for two weeks and go to school for two weeks. And I got paid,” Kulp said. “So when I graduated from high school, I was already working for PennDOT.”

He was thrilled to have a job — and a good job — when most recent graduates were working entry level positions.

“Then 1969 came,” Kulp said.

The Vietnam War was ongoing, the draft was underway and a 19-year-old Kulp decided to enlist.

He was classified 1A, or immediately available and fit for unrestricted military service.

He joined the Army, which came with a 3-year commitment and a guarantee for schooling in his field of construction surveying. He was sent to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

It didn’t last long; Kulp was soon transferred to Fort Riley, Kansas.

“I thought, ‘That’s odd. Why would they transfer me there? That base is built already. The roads are there and everything’,” Kulp recalled.

He landed at an artillery battery — quite different from the construction surveying he planned on doing.

“The first sergeant said, ‘construction surveying/destruction surveying? Close enough,’ ” Kulp recalled.

And from that point forward, he served as a forward observer for a battalion of 155 millimeter, self-propelled, tracked howitzers.

“They’d fire over my head, basically, and I’d have to tell them how to adjust the round,” Kulp said. “I’d say, ‘Fire for effect,’ and everybody would fire.”

Needless to say, it wasn’t a safe job.

The assignment did have some perks — especially for a music lover like Kulp.

“That’s where I saw all of the best bands,” he said of when he had “free” time. “I saw the original James Gang. I saw the original Alice Cooper. Black Sabbath. Montrose. Just everybody. We’d drive down to Wichita to see them.”

Kulp lived off base, and packed his harmonica.

“I did play blues harp and sing while I was in Kansas,” he said. “Anyone who knows me will gasp when I say that they were country bands, not blues or rock bands. When in Rome ...”

The blues harp would also travel overseas.

“Every year, we would station the entire First Infantry Division in Germany,” Kulp said.

As part of Operation Reforger (Return Forces to Germany), the infantry participated in training exercises along West Germany’s border to evaluate how they would defend against a potential invasion. The annual NATO Cold War operation began in 1969.

“The entire First Infantry Division: tanks, artillery, howitzers and everybody — everybody, thousands — would fly to Germany and then you play war games for six weeks” of the eight week assignment, Kulp said. “It was the Cold War. We were patrolling the Iron Curtain. That was our mission, so I never got sent to (Viet) ’Nam.”

On his first trip, Kulp suffered seizures and was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Nuremberg, Germany. And on the second year, Kulp was hit with pneumonia, mononucleosis, tonsillitis and pleurisy — and all at once.

“I was turning blue in my bunk,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe in or out. I was suffocating.”

Again, he was flown out for medical attention, and this time, he was placed in an intensive care unit at an Army hospital in Frankfort.

He doesn’t remember anything — except waking up in his hospital bed. And when he did, the look on a nurse’s face was sheer surprise.

“That’s when I realized they expected me to die,” he said. “I actually have a telegram that was sent to my parents advising them to get my affairs in order since they didn’t expect me to live.”

After a 4-week hospitalization in Frankfort, he was returned stateside to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a long stay of healing and recovery.

“So I almost died twice,” Kulp said. “They were the only two helicopter rides I ever had and I have no memory.”

Kulp was discharged from service in 1972, studied civil engineering at Penn State University, and worked for several regional civil engineering firms for more than 50 years before retiring.

“I did civil engineering, design work — and I liked doing all that but it wasn’t my passion. My passion is music,” he said.

Kulp was 15 when he learned to play the blues harp and harmonica. He was a singer in a band that wanted to learn a song with a harmonica part.

“Since I was the singer and the only one with free hands, I was elected,” Kulp said. “I’ve played ever since. I love to do that.”

He’s played in bands, in duos and solo. With JUSTUS, he played at the opening of the Tamaqua Community Arts Center in 2015.

As part of Crossroads Duo with Sterling Koch of Pottsville, he performed at the 2017 International Blues Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.

“That was the absolute pinnacle of my career,” Kulp said.

More recently, Kulp has been taking to the airwaves on WMGH/Magic 105.5. On his show, “Jack’s Tracks” from 6-9 p.m. Mondays, Kulp promises to play the “absolute best classic rock, hard rock and blues rock on the planet.” He also takes requests.

He lived in the Pottsville area for about 30 years before moving to Tamaqua in the early 2000s.

Kulp is active in Tamaqua’s Borough Authority, Water Authority and CRIZ Authority.